Illness/Sickness: Axies not looking so good

Hi All

Could really do with some help or advice, I have 2 young axies that are not doing so well, I went away for 5 days a few weeks ago and whilst I was away we had a heat wave, when I came back the water in the tank was almost 30 degrees C and they did not look good at all, They bother looked a bit yellowy and their lovely frilly gills had shrivelled with hardly any feathery bits on them. I tried cooling the tank with frozen water bottles but couldnt get the temperature down low enough so I put them in the fridge and gave them salt baths twice a day for 3 days. The fridge temp is around 4/5 degrees which I know is on the low side but it wont go any warmer. They have been in the fridge for about 2 weeks and while one is perking up the other is not looking great, he always has a curled tail which ive read is a sign of stress and today he had white cottony stuff on his back, they have hardly eaten a thing which also worries me.

Is there anything else I could do for them?

Also there veins in their tails are more promenant that before - I am petrified that they are trying to metamorpasise.

I feel so bad for them, I would love to get them back into their tank but the temp is still at about 26 degrees so I cant.

HELP ME!

Karlie

I'm probably not qualified to speak on this subject but since no one who is has commented I'll give it a shot.

The water got too hot. I'm actually surprised that they survived that experience at all.
Refrigerating = Good.
Was there fungus present that caused you to salt bathe them at first? If not then that probably didn't help them either.
It does sound now as if you have a fungus problem that will need to be treated with salt baths. I don't have any experience in that area but I would really like it if someone who knows could tell you whether they can survive the salt baths or not.
Are they eating? Any Pictures?

Mac is on track here. Why were you salt bathing them to begin with? Salt baths are not always necessary, but are a common treatment for fungus. So you only need to do this for the one with the fungus. Make sure to follow this site's recommendations for the salt baths. Hopefully, you are fridging them according to this site as well. Are you keeping them in dechlorinated water?

You definitely need to get that tank temp down, have a look at this article, maybe it can give you some ideas...COOL

As Mac mentions, pics and their eating habits could be helpful along with the other parameters of the tank.

the high temperature has been very stressful for your axies and so they reacted as what you described. But don´t panic, they don´t morph!
They best you can do for them now is to keep them cool (in the fridge) and clean for calming them down.
The axie with fungus should be salt bathed twice a day.